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Charting a Course to Survival

May 18, 2022 by Katie Squier

By Ed Rider

Cutting-edge Clinical Trials Provide New Hope for Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer

“You have pancreatic cancer.”

These four words are among the most devastating a person will ever hear. The difficulty of diagnosing cancer of the pancreas early makes it one of the most lethal and aggressive types of cancer — the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. These individuals have just a 10% chance of living beyond five years. Most are diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and have little hope of long-term survival.

On average, 115 Americans die from this dreadful disease every day.

“Jeopardy” host Alex Trebek and baseball Hall of Famer Bob Gibson both died from pancreatic cancer about a month apart in the fall of 2020. Every year, more than 60,000 people in the United States are faced with a similar diagnosis — people like Linda Kimball, the owner of Old School Clipper, a men’s barber shop in Atlantic, Iowa.

“I was in shock and a little scared because I knew that it was a bad cancer to have,” Kimball said.

PANCREATIC CANCER CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

Despite the dismal outlook for survival, researchers and clinicians at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and its clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine, believe pancreatic cancer can be detected in its earliest stages. That belief is so strong that in 2018, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved establishing the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, which celebrates its five-year anniversary this summer.

James Armitage, M.D., and Shirley Young both lost their spouses to pancreatic cancer. Jim Young, former chair of Union Pacific Railroad, died in 2014, two years after his diagnosis. Nancy Armitage died 16 months after her diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

“It’s hard to describe how much this disrupts your life,” said Armitage, the Joe Shapiro Professor of Medicine in UNMC’s division of oncology and hematology and a cancer physician at Nebraska Medicine. “I went to talk to Shirley’s family about developing a pancreas cancer program, and she understood the situation.”

The result was the development of the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence, which features a comprehensive program of research and care. Sunil Hingorani, M.D., Ph.D., an accomplished and internationally recognized pancreas cancer researcher and clinician, has been named the inaugural recipient of the Nancy Armitage Pancreas Cancer Clinical Research Presidential Chair and the first director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine.

Dr. Hingorani’s research success is well documented. He helped develop a model to accurately mimic human pancreas cancer from its precancerous inception to its advanced stages.

THE PATH TO BETTER OUTCOMES

Kelsey Klute, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at UNMC’s division of oncology and hematology and a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at Nebraska Medicine, has treated more than 300 patients with pancreatic cancer, most of whom had advanced disease. Klute said that UNMC’s world-class researchers and clinicians are working diligently to find new ways to detect pancreatic cancer earlier through four clinical trials and a recently developed program in early detection — initiated by Tony Hollingsworth, Ph.D., the Hugh & Jane Hunt Chair in Cancer Research at UNMC — that screens family members with an inherited risk for developing this cancer.

Klute said she and her colleagues hope to expand the availability of clinical trials at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine. She said she is confident the trials, which will focus on early detection, will help lead to increased survival of the disease.

“Clinical trials are our best way to improve survival not only for patients diagnosed with pancreas cancer over the next five or 10 years, but also for patients facing pancreas cancer today,” Klute said. “Their best chance at beating the status quo is by enrolling in a clinical trial.”

ROAD TO RECOVERY

Kimball never considered in March 2021 that she might have pancreatic cancer when she began to experience pain in her stomach that radiated to her back. Although she had developed acid reflux disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes in her 50s, she considered herself to be healthy for a woman in her early 70s. Thinking her acid reflux medication was no longer working, she went to see her physician in Atlantic. Additional tests at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center revealed pancreatic cancer.

“I went into it thinking, ‘OK, it’s stage 1. Let’s get it fixed,’” Kimball said. “I just decided that I was going to take things one day at a time because I wasn’t ready to lie down and die.”

Klute presented Kimball with the opportunity to take part in a clinical trial that incorporated a heart failure medication called digoxin with FOLFIRINOX, a standard chemotherapy drug. Kimball said she jumped at the opportunity.

“I had no reservations once Dr. Klute explained that this was not a new medication, that it had been around for years and had been used for heart conditions,” Kimball said.

The trial included eight rounds of chemotherapy, each consisting of six hours of treatment at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center and another 48 hours of treatment at home. The process was repeated every two weeks. Six weeks after completing this treatment regimen, Kimball underwent Whipple surgery, a complex, eight-hour procedure to remove the head of the pancreas, where most cancerous tumors are located. After recovering from surgery, Kimball completed four more rounds of chemotherapy independent of the trial.

Despite some lingering effects from the chemotherapy, Kimball is feeling better about her prognosis. On Dec. 30, Kimball received news that her most recent CT scan showed no signs of cancer.

“At this point, my body is still healing. I’m getting stronger every day,” she said.

All the Right Moves

May 18, 2022 by Katie Squier

By Susan Houston Klaus

How the UNO Pitching Lab Is Helping Athletes Improve Their Games

The digital images generated in the University of Nebraska at Omaha Department of Biomechanics might prompt a double take. Human skeletons appear to be pitching a baseball or softball, spiking a volleyball or swinging a golf club. But these bundles of bones are actually living, breathing athletes — from UNO, the local community, the region and the country.

They’ve come to the UNO Pitching Lab in the Biomechanics Research Building for movement assessments designed to improve their performance and prevent injuries from taking them out of the game. It’s the first time the department has combined biomechanics, athletic training and data gathering to benefit the athletic community. And like other unique programs happening in the Biomechanics Research Building, it’s giving students experiences they wouldn’t find anywhere else.

The Biomechanics Research Building garners envy around the world for both its people and its equipment, said Jeff Kaipust, UNO’s assistant director for biomechanics. Opened in 2013 and expanded in 2019, the building represents the generosity of Nebraskans, particularly the Ruth and Bill Scott family, who provided the lead donations for the building’s construction and expansion, and the support of the UNO administration and University of Nebraska System.

“None of the wonderful things we do in UNO Biomechanics would have been possible without private support, especially from the Ruth and Bill Scott family,” said Nick Stergiou, Ph.D., assistant dean and director of the UNO Division of Biomechanics and Research Development.

“This support is fundamental for construction of our facilities,” Stergiou said. “It is also essential for retaining and attracting talented young scientists who work in the pitching lab.”

Together, those elements have created a place that puts a high value on collaboration — a place where, Kaipust said, “one lab doesn’t belong to one researcher; every space in our facility is shared.”

The lab is populated by people from around the world with all kinds of expertise, including in mathematics, engineering and kinesiology.

“From the brain to the individual muscles to the different properties of the ligaments, tendons and bones, we’re just trying to solve interesting problems on the way we move,” he said.

The idea for the pitching lab started with an athlete.

Tyler Hamer is a former NCAA Division I pitcher who played at the University of Illinois before transferring to UNO for his last two seasons. As he was completing his master’s degree in biomechanics at UNO in 2019, he mulled over his next move.

“As a player growing up, a pitcher in high school and also in college, baseball’s been a lot of who I was and who I still am now,” he said.

He wondered if it was possible to pursue a doctorate with his dissertation focused on baseball pitching. Hamer talked it over with his faculty adviser, Brian Knarr, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UNO Department of Biomechanics. For a decade, Knarr has been doing his own research on understanding how people move, how injuries can be prevented and how to optimize rehabilitation from an injury. He’s also a lifelong baseball fan.

With Knarr’s support, Hamer outlined an idea for a lab focused on the unique needs of athletes. He tested the system out on himself, again stepping on the mound to deliver pitch after pitch — this time, in the name of scientific research. Soon, the lab had the interest of others on campus.

That included Adam Rosen, Ph.D., and Sam Wilkins, Ph.D., at the UNO School of Health and Kinesiology. Both have been Division I baseball athletic trainers; now they train the trainers who work with UNO athletes and bring a clinical aspect to the lab. Hamer and the team also got buy-in — and an old pitching mound they reengineered to use in the lab — from UNO baseball coach Evan Porter.

The pitching lab officially hosted its first subjects in October 2019, bringing in UNO Baseball pitchers. They’ve returned regularly to check their progress. Porter said players have tweaked their movements and improved their velocity on the mound. But there’s also the unmeasurable part of the assessment he’s glad they have access to. Catching movements that may lead to injuries is crucial to preventing them and staying in the game. Having that information gives them added confidence as athletes, Porter said.

“It provides them with more knowledge about how their bodies work, how their mechanics work, and that leads to better tendencies, better performances and more wins, hopefully, for the Mavericks for the long term,” Porter said.

The collaboration among biomechanics, athletic training and the athletes they serve has been valuable for biomechanics as a program and for its students, said Knarr.

“It’s something that is incredibly attractive for students coming into the program,” Knarr said. “We’ve seen increases in recruiting and increases from the student body to come to our program to work with our athletes, to work with our faculty doing the science.”

Students also get a tremendous opportunity to work with athletes at an elite level, he said.

“Not many places in the country and across the world really have the opportunity to work with high-level athletes,” Knarr said. “Often, they’re either on professional teams or they’re siloed off in their academic or athletic programs. But some of the best opportunities to learn and to understand the sport are to work with athletes that are great at that sport.”

Baseball assessments were just the beginning for the lab.

In the past couple of years, the lab has expanded to include testing for UNO athletes in softball, volleyball, golf, swimming and diving, and men’s soccer, as well as players of middle-school age and up from the greater community. The lab has developed a reputation not only as an assessment destination, but also a learning resource for local students. Athletes with their eyes on the Major League Baseball draft have also made the trip from around the country to get advice on how to improve their performance and throwing velocity.

Marriah Buss recently visited the lab with her UNO Volleyball teammates for an assessment. An outside hitter, she’s been a standout on the court for years: In high school, she finished her years at Lincoln Lutheran with the second-most kills in Nebraska history. So, a particular finding from her assessment was more than a little surprising.

“One thing we learned about me is I have really bad shoulder mobility,” she said. “So, we’re wondering how I’m able to hit the ball, and how I’m able to hit it hard. Through the biomechanics testing, we learned it’s not through my shoulder that I’m hitting the ball, but it’s because of my hips, how they rotate and the speed at which they rotate.”

Buss said she was “just really shocked” by the information.

“Now I know that by working out my hips, it will improve my arm swing and how well I’m hitting the ball,” she said. “It’ll definitely become something I’m way more focused on now than I was before.”

Buss is looking forward to putting the newfound knowledge to work so she’s even more powerful when the season begins again in late August.

For Hamer, research in the lab has provided a bigger view of where his career may lead. In October 2021, he joined biomechanists from UNO Pitching Lab collaborator Wake Forest University in the Dominican Republic at the MLB International Combine in Santo Domingo. There, he operated the biomechanics pitching lab, collecting data for MLB teams to review for the draft season. His paper, co-authored with Rosen, was published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine in March 2021.

Those experiences wouldn’t have been possible without those who originally put UNO Biomechanics on the map, Hamer said. “It’s really just the hard work that happened before I ever arrived here that’s allowed me and others working in the lab to make it what it is today,” he said. Hamer said, ever since he started playing baseball, he’s wanted to make it to the majors. Today, his work in the lab has helped him achieve that dream — just not in the way he imagined.

What’s next for him?

“It’s just kind of seeing where life takes me and just going each day as best as I can,” he said. “I’ve always been a believer in hard work, and if you work as hard as you want to, you can make anything happen.”

After a Life of Adventure, Love Inspires a Gift

May 17, 2022 by Katie Squier

Bill Nelsen has led an interesting life. He has traveled all over the world, surveying land in far-off places — from Greenland to Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia to Mexico — for the U.S. Department of Defense. Bill, who is a Burnett Society member, worked for 41 years in what was previously known as the Army Map Service. The AMS produced military topographic maps for the armed forces, so Bill spent time trekking through remote areas, often walking at night so he could watch the stars to create map points on the ground.

It’s not necessarily what he imagined when he graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a degree in mathematics in 1962.

“My parents always wanted me to go to school,” Bill said. “They knew I’d be better off going to school and getting a degree. Fortunately, I was. My degree opened up a lot of doors.”

Bill returned to the U.S. in the late 1960s and settled down with an office position in Washington, D.C. Soon after, he met the woman who would become his wife at a Christmas party in the city.

“I got her phone number and gave her a call,” Bill said. “We dated the whole year of 1969, and we married in January 1970.”

Leoni Peperis Nelsen, who grew up in Tarpon Springs, Florida, in a tight-knit Greek community, worked at the U.S. State Department in diplomatic security until she retired. Public service was an integral part of the Nelsens’ married lives. So it made sense when Bill decided to make a planned gift to the University of Nebraska. In fact, Bill had been giving to the university since 1972.

“I had to thank them, thank the school, because if I didn’t have the degree, I wouldn’t have the job with the Army Map Service,” Bill said. “I was just giving money as an appreciation, giving a thank you to them for allowing me to get that degree, which really helped me.”

Bill’s planned gift, which he has directed to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, is also a gift of thanks — but not for his degree or his career. It’s a gift of thanks to his wife.

Leoni passed away just a few days before Christmas in 2019, and Bill’s grief for her still feels raw.

“It was a very quiet Christmas,” he said, “a very sad time for me.”

Leoni suffered from dementia and died from complications of the disease. Bill cared for Leoni while she endured it, and he helped care for his two sisters-in-law, who also have dementia. His gift to UNMC supports research into dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, along with macular degeneration, which he suffers from.

“I thought to myself, maybe we can find a cure for some of these diseases,” he said. “It won’t help Leoni, my wife, but it will help other people in society.”

Bill established a charitable gift annuity to make his donation. A charitable gift annuity provides a dependable income stream for the donor, who can allocate the remainder to support an area of the university that is personally meaningful to them.

For Bill, even after a lifetime of travel and interesting adventures, what was most meaningful was the memory of his wife — and helping others in her name.

“I wanted to do something,” he said. “I figure my wife is worth it.”

Gutschow family ‘pay it forward’ with compassionate care awards

February 17, 2022 by Robb Crouch

Editor’s note: Jim Gutschow’s beloved wife, Pam, sadly passed away Jan. 13. We hope this story pays some small tribute to her and Jim’s lasting impact.

When Jim Gutschow first met Philip Bierman, M.D., at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, he had already resigned himself to bad news. His wife, Pam, had stayed home in Kansas City, not wanting to drive up to Omaha just to hear the same devastating diagnosis: Jim had just five years to live.

But that’s not what Jim heard that day.

Jim had been diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Two hospitals had already told him there was nothing they could do.

But at UNMC, doctors were doing something different. It was one of the few places in the world at the time conducting successful stem cell transplants. Dr. Bierman told Jim he could cure him with this lifesaving technique.

“I basically blanked out,” Jim recalled. “All I could think about was I’m 38 years old; I’ve got these three little kids at home. I can’t wait to go home and tell Pam this.”

Jim began his treatment at UNMC in December 1994. A practicing Catholic, he talked to his priest before the surgery. His priest predicted that Jim would experience a time when he would be so sick that he would believe he was dying. He said to pray with all the strength he could muster and not to give up the fight.

That moment came at about 2 in the morning, when Jim crawled out from the bathroom in his hospital room on all fours. He felt as close to death as his priest predicted. But when he came out of the bathroom, a nurse was waiting for him. She stayed with him for several hours, holding his hand while he prayed.

By the time the sun came up that morning, Jim had begun to feel better.

Jim recovered from the cancer, but that wasn’t the last time he came to UNMC. He returned to UNMC and Nebraska Medicine, the university’s primary clinical teaching partner, for another surgery to treat pancreatic cancer several years later and again to be treated for polymyalgia rheumatica.

Each time, Jim says, he experienced remarkable compassion from his doctors, nurses and the entire care team. It strengthened him in some of his most trying moments, and it also inspired him and his wife, Pam to recognize that compassionate care with a generous gift.

In 2017, Jim and Pam established the Gutschow Family Oncology Compassionate Care Awards through two planned gifts. Their vision was to recognize those physicians, nurses and care technicians at Nebraska Medicine who demonstrate compassionate care for patients undergoing cancer treatment with an annual award and financial gift.

“I feel enormous gratitude for the level of care I received at UNMC and the compassion the doctors, nurses and staff showed me as I went through some of the most difficult periods of my life,” Jim said. “Today, I am thankful to say, I have been able to turn that gratitude into something special that I hope will ‘pay it forward.’”

In recognition of their planned giving, Jim and Pam are members of the Burnett Society.

In 2021, Jim realized he and Pam were in a position to execute one of their planned gifts early, during their lifetime, giving them a chance to witness its impact.

At an emotionally charged inaugural awards ceremony Dec. 3, attended by many of Jim’s care team and his children, Jim recognized the nurse, Susan Kruse, who helped him through that dark night 25 years earlier.

“Hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about how you helped me and my family,” he said. “Human touch is such a source of healing, and I know you holding my hand throughout the night helped me to heal.”

Tom Thompson, senior director of development at the University of Nebraska Foundation, said the profound impact of Jim and Pam’s gift will live on in perpetuity.

“It certainly is a high note in the time I’ve been with the foundation to work with a couple who have done something so special,” he said. “This is here for a long time. That’s why it’s so great for the kids to be here, because I think some day we’re going to see grandkids here.”

Jim said he hopes each year the awards inspire others to remember the importance of compassion and to keep going on tough days.

“This is an acknowledgement that you’re a really nice, great person,” he said. “People realize what you do.”

The Burnett Society recognizes those who support the university through a planned gift, usually from their will or trust. The group takes its name from Edgar A. Burnett, a chancellor at the University of Nebraska during the Great Depression, who recognized the university would not succeed on state funding alone. He called on 30 business and civic leaders, and together they created the University of Nebraska Foundation to raise private funds for the university.

A New Home for Treatments, Therapies and Joy: Munroe-Meyer Institute Provides Hope for Families

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

Christine Tran wasn’t certain how her son Joseph, 7, would respond to seeing the new 215,882-square-foot, state-of-the-art Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI) building for the first time.

For more than five years, the familiar yellow canopy on the campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center had signaled to Joseph his arrival at MMI. Seeing that yellow awning, Tran said, always gave Joseph a boost of energy.

“This place is truly amazing. Joseph’s eyes lit up when he saw that playground,” Tran said of the new facility. “And the size provides so many possibilities for the growth of programs into adulthood. MMI has been an important part of his life. We hope we never have to stop coming here.”

The environment of the facility appeals to clients across the lifespan and their families, where children, teens and adults can feel like they belong and can be successful.

There is a lot for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families to absorb the first time they visit the new MMI, adjacent to the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Scott Campus. From Nancy’s Place — the aquatic center — to Aspen’s Playground to the Holland Foundation Early Intervention Wing, the new MMI building is more than double the size of its former home of more than 60 years. It affords world-class providers more space for teaching, research, clinical and community engagement, as well as the accessibility individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities require.

Early intervention for autism spectrum disorders is essential for developing long-term skills and outcomes. The Holland Foundation Early Intervention Wing encompasses nearly half of the new building’s second level and includes six classrooms and 35 treatment rooms. The Maker Space provides room for tools needed by MMI staff to create nearly any assistive device, such as orthotics, to assist in the performance of daily activities by MMI clients. Being located near the University of Nebraska’s Peter Kiewit Institute allows MMI faculty to collaborate with engineering students and faculty on new technologies that could lead to innovative treatments and therapies.

Researchers work side by side with clinicians and families in the Sensorimotor Lab to identify ways to improve the function and fitness of individuals with sensorimotor challenges, such as cerebral palsy. The lab allows for the rapid identification of key ingredients for expanding an individual’s ability to participate in engaging activities and leads to the availability of cutting-edge services for MMI clients. Its proximity to a nearby biking and walking trail allows for additional recreational and physical therapy options for clients.

And for clients and their families, the location offers an abundance of convenient and accessible parking.

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

Familiar surroundings are a comfort to many with intellectual and development disabilities. So, when MMI announced that it would be moving from its former home, not everyone shared in the excitement.

Denise Gehringer has been intimately involved with MMI for years. Her son, Jake, 25, has been attending programs at MMI since he was 2. Another son, James Gehringer, Ph.D., is a research assistant professor in the department of physical therapy who oversees the new Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab. The lab brings together researchers and clinicians to create new computer programs that immerse clients into virtual environments and allow them to acquire new skills while having fun.

As the former president of the MMI Board of Directors, Denise Gehringer was excited about the nearly $91 million project and its possibilities for new and expanded programs. Jake, however, was hesitant about the move.

“Jake was a little irritated,” she said. “He wasn’t ready to leave. We were all a little sentimental about leaving a place that we had been a part of for so long. He doesn’t feel that way anymore. Jake has a little more pep in his step now.”

She said the new building exceeded all expectations. “It’s very welcoming and friendly. You get pulled right in.”

Bob and Vicky Vandervort’s son Michael, 34, was born with a rare condition that requires him to use a wheelchair and limits his ability to communicate. The couple recalled how Michael, then 10, cried after his first day at Camp Munroe, a recreational day camp program for children and adolescents with disabilities established in 1982 and funded by the Hattie B. Munroe Foundation. While they considered not finishing the week of camp, the Vandervorts soon realized that Michael wept because he did not want to leave. He was having so much fun, they said.

“Michael looks forward to going to MMI. Outside of family, it’s the number one thing that Michael loves,” Bob Vandervort said. “The activities provide him with a level of independence from us.”

“The pool area is unbelievable,” Vicky Vandervort said. “I had no idea it was going to be that nice. It’s Michael’s favorite thing to do.”

FULFILLING THE MISSION

Károly Mirnics, M.D., Ph.D., director of MMI, said the transition is less about the building and more about providing MMI’s innovative and creative staff the space to establish new programs, to expand existing programs and to fulfill MMI’s mission to be world leaders in transforming the lives of all individuals with disabilities and complex medical conditions.

“Our amazing new building is a vessel for services,” Mirnics said. “I am in awe of the possibilities, but also aware of the expectations placed upon us.

“It took a community to make this happen, and I am very proud to be part of this community, which cares so deeply about the people and families MMI serves. Most importantly, our new home allows us to provide the best, most comprehensive, supremely integrated family-centric services in the world.”

Philanthropic support was crucial to the new building’s transformation. Private gifts to the University of Nebraska Foundation, coupled with $10 million in state bonds, provided funding for the project.

Jennifer Read and her family relocated from North Platte, Nebraska, seven years ago to access services at MMI. Her son Tucker, 11, had shown signs of being on the autism spectrum, but services offered through his school in North Platte were limited.

“I did some research and knew we had to get him here,” Read said. “He loves coming to camp. We see a completely different Tucker on his days at MMI.”

Read was especially excited about the new programs now available through MMI.

The Caring for Champions Program was established to provide equitable access to quality health care, education and services to individuals with intellectual and development disabilities. Providers from UNMC’s College of Dentistry, Truhlsen Eye Institute and MMI’s nutrition services provide access to vision, oral health and wellness services that are tailored to the patients’ unique situations.

“People on the spectrum often struggle to get services like eye and dental care,” Read said. “Having providers who know how to work with people on the spectrum helps to make the experience more pleasant. There are so many exciting things going on here.”

DELIVERING ON THE PROMISE

While the new facility received rave reviews, parents noted that the building would mean little without the staff who deliver the services.

“It’s a world-class facility, but it’s the people who make the difference,” Bob Vandervort said. “This staff is so creative and imaginative … to turn them loose in a facility like this, they will take things to a whole new level.”

Noah Farho, a senior biology major at UNO, is one of those people. He began volunteering at MMI in 2015 to obtain service hours for school but fell in love with the program. He has been a member of the recreation therapy staff since 2017. It’s the joy he gets from the relationships that he has built with the program’s participants and staff that keeps him coming back.

Farho said he was “blown away” by the size and features of the new location. However, being able to experience his clients’ reactions to the pool and playground for the first time has been his favorite part of the new facility.

“It’s wonderful to be able to provide our program participants with the type of building and the features they deserve,” Farho said. “The new facility expands the number and the quality of programs we are able to provide.”

In the end, what happens inside the building is what matters most.

“I always worry about leaving him (Tucker) places,” Read said, “but not here. Tucker loves coming here. He feels comfortable and safe. We have people here who know him and love him.”

Tran agreed.

“It’s like dropping him (Joseph) off at his grandparents’ house. We don’t have to worry. We know that he’s going to be OK,” she said. “We are so grateful to have something like this in our community that celebrates our children.”

When Bees Become Canaries: UNL Research Leads to Important Discoveries

September 26, 2021 by Robb Crouch

It’s a tale of two sites for discovery. Since 2018, in Kimmel Orchard outside of Nebraska City, Nebraska, beehives have flourished in a meadow surrounded by apple, cherry and pear trees. At the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center (ENREC) near Mead, Nebraska, seeping, invisible toxins caused dead bees to spill out of hives for three summers, halting promising research and mystifying scientists.

The connection between these two very different places? It was the work of Judy Wu-Smart, Ph.D., assistant professor and extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

In the orchard, a collection of white beehives, some decorated by children, hosts thousands of industrious bees waiting to help pollinate delicate, fragrant blossoms each spring. In the summer, rows of trees will be heavy with fruit, and visitors of all ages will harvest the bounty. Add in beekeeping classes and research, and this place buzzes with life.

It’s a favorite spot for Wu-Smart, who enjoys teaching beekeepers at every level, from the beginner to the professional.

“I really love engaging with the stakeholders and translating complicated science into relatable, practical solutions,” said Wu-Smart. “Our applied research feeds into our beekeeper and landowner training programs.”

Bees are not only crucial to the agricultural economy and food stability, but their numbers are also declining, so sharing the latest research is increasingly urgent. Wu-Smart developed a Master Beekeeping certification to help do just that. Beekeepers from local and regional beekeeping organizations in a four-state region take classes to discover what works and then bring back up-to-date information to their local groups, helping more than 800 people become more effective beekeepers.

Kimmel Orchard not only provides space for the Bee Lab’s apiaries (and fruit trees with pollen for those bees), but the Richard P. Kimmel & Laurine Kimmel Charitable Foundation also awarded the lab a $100,000 grant in 2020. Wu-Smart made careful use of that gift, pairing it with funds from her own resources to present a virtual Bee Fun Day, a Girl Scout workshop and, most importantly, fund two graduate students and their research projects.

One of those students is Courtney Brummel. As part of her work toward her master’s degree in entomology, she’s exploring ways to integrate pollinator conservation with education at Kimmel Orchard.

Brummel said that she is “eternally grateful” for the grant.

“Without the Kimmel Foundation, I wouldn’t be getting my master’s,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to take my next steps in my career, but also in my life, because of the self-discovery I’ve had through this journey. I am passionate about food security and the importance of education. And I’m realizing that people want to help — they just don’t know where to start.”

This spring, Brummel and her fellow graduate students planted pollinator gardens with carefully chosen native plants, providing food for bees. Brummel designed signs to share more about bees, the pollinator gardens and conservation practices with visitors. These signs will be installed at the pollinator gardens, which border a walking trail, and also in other places around the orchard. Brummel hopes visitors will see how beautiful native plants are and maybe give some of them a try. It turns out that with bees, what you plant matters.

“People think growing petunias is helping bees because they are flowers, but native bees cannot pull pollen and nectar from a lot of these non-native plants, because they have not coevolved,” Brummel said.

She explained that the shape of the flower and the shape of the pollinator have to match. Some plants are only pollinated by one type of insect, while others aren’t so particular. On the flip side, some pollinators feed only on one type of flower. Brummel is excited to create signage to share information like this with the Kimmel Orchard’s many visitors. It’s one more way Kimmel Orchard can be a place of discovery.

Discovery is not always so joyful, even when it is crucial to the health of people and the local ecosystem. Sixty-four miles away at the extension center, Wu-Smart and her students discovered something grim and unexpected.

The original question Wu-Smart hoped to answer at that site was: Can locating beehives behind windbreaks help protect the bees from wind-borne pesticides? But instead she was faced with a much more pressing question: Why are these bees dying? For three years, while bees thrived at Kimmel Orchard, she couldn’t even keep her colonies alive through the summer
at ENREC.

Wu-Smart knows bees. She’s been studying them since 2006, when she helped with a study of orchid bees in Florida as part of the Student Conservation Association Program through AmeriCorps and all throughout her research in graduate school. She knows exactly what to do to keep them happy and healthy. So why were thousands of dead bees spilling out of her hives?

She did what scientists do: She collected data. To make sure she wasn’t double counting dead bees or losing them in the grass when she wanted them under a microscope, she invented a simple beehive monitoring device that any beekeeper can make with 2x4s and an old sheet or tarp.
It’s a bee trap, and it’s probably one of the cheapest pieces of scientific equipment after the question mark.

With the help of a tenacious graduate student, she collected soil, air and plant samples for analysis. But the lab results made no sense.

“We contested with the lab for two years, because we thought there was a spill,” Wu-Smart said “We’re like, there’s no way milkweeds could have this much pesticide. Check again.”

When the second batch of tests came back again with results among the highest ever collected in field samples, the research team started to look for the source.

It turned out that the bees were part of a larger pattern in the area that included sick humans and dead wildlife. The pattern pointed to AltEn, an ethanol plant that used seeds coated with pesticides to produce ethanol and sold one of the byproducts to farmers for fertilizer. Area residents had complained, but federal and state regulations only covered how pesticides are applied at the factory, not what happens to the seed after it leaves the factory. There are also laws designed to protect bees, about how farmers can spray chemicals on their fields — but these chemicals weren’t being sprayed.

“People have always commented about how bees are the canaries in the coal mine of our environment,” Wu-Smart said. “If they’re not healthy, then there’s something else going on. This is a perfect example where, yes, my bees were the canary.”

Once she confirmed what was happening, Wu-Smart found herself in a role she didn’t expect: testifying before the Nebraska Legislature.

Wu-Smart’s voice joined the chorus of Nebraskans who were and are concerned and upset about AltEn. In April, the Nebraska Legislature passed LB507, prohibiting the use of pesticide-treated seeds in the production of ethanol if the byproducts would be too toxic for use as livestock feed or fertilizer.

Now Wu-Smart and her students have joined forces with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to assess the impact of AltEn. This effort includes assessing the situation holistically, working across disciplines to measure human health impacts as well as the effects on water, soil, animals and insects.

Student research will continue at ENREC. Rogan Tokach, one of the graduate students partially funded by the grant from the Kimmel Foundation, wants to learn more about the impact of pesticides on queen bees. He will use contaminated material from ENREC beehives as a key part of his study, which will eventually become his master’s thesis.

Tokach is grateful for the gift that helped make his studies possible.

“Their donation has allowed me to do this research project, and then hopefully make a career out of working in the honeybee industry,” he said. “I’ve been a beekeeper since I was about 12 years old. And I’ve loved every second of it.”

The honeybees Wu-Smart studies typically travel 1 to 2 miles, maybe 5 in a pinch, looking for lunch for themselves and their hive mates. But her work has a far wider impact. She mentors 10 to 15 UNL students each year through their work at the UNL Bee Lab. Members of the public also benefit through the Bee Lab workshops, which in 2020, despite pandemic restrictions, provided introductory courses to 673 people, some of whom joined the Great Plains Master Beekeepers Program started by Wu-Smart. She and her students do research published in national journals and partner with a wide variety of community organizations and nonprofits, including not only Kimmel Orchard but also Girl Scouts, the University of Nebraska State Museum-Morrill Hall, Pheasants Forever, Nebraska Game and Parks Schramm Education Center, Lauritzen Gardens, the Center for Rural Affairs, Nebraska Beekeepers Association and the Lincoln Children’s Zoo.

Wu-Smart appreciates the donors who help make her work possible and for the Kimmel Foundation’s grant to the Bee Lab.

“I think it’s an incredible, generous offer to help support the bee students,” she said. “it speaks to Kimmel’s commitment to education and training. It’s wonderful the way they have opened up their farm to allow our students to learn how to professionally engage with the public and develop these educational training skills. Having partnerships like Kimmel — it strengthens us all around.

Team announces potential new target for pancreatic cancer treatment

July 28, 2021 by Robb Crouch

UNMC researchers have discovered a potential new therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer, detailed in a paper in a recent issue of the journal Gastroenterology.

The team established a new way to target pancreatic cancer cells by developing inhibitors that, when combined with existing chemotherapies, can diminish pancreatic cancer in mouse models. The discovery was a culmination of about seven years of work with collaborators from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Germany, India, China, Italy and Switzerland.

The research was funded primarily by a $2.6 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health and an Italian cancer research grant. Private support through gifts made to the University of Nebraska Foundation for pancreatic research has also attributed to the research team’s success.

Pancreatic cancer is a lethal malignancy with a five-year survival rate of less than 10%. Pancreatic cancer cells tend to reprogram how they feed themselves and are able to survive and grow under harsh conditions, said Pankaj Singh, PhD, professor in the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer at UNMC. Dr. Singh is the senior author of the paper.

“Our lab found that deleting the enzyme SIRT5 in pancreatic cancer cells accelerates tumor growth and correlates with poor survival in both pancreatic cancer patients and genetically engineered mouse models,” said Dr. Singh, who also is co-leader of the Cancer Biology Program at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. “The study provides the first evidence in support of activating SIRT5 as a therapeutic strategy.

“The ability to ‘turn on’ SIRT5 in pancreatic cancer cells inhibits tumor growth. Developing drugs that do this is the next step and will help diminish tumors in patients with low SIRT5 expression in the tumors,” Dr. Singh said.

The team used a public database to identify the role of SIRT5 in pancreatic cancer and generated new animal models to study its role in the disease. It also developed various cell line models and tissue-like structures, and it conducted various molecular and biochemical studies. The studies also used human tumor specimens.

Dr. Singh said SIRT5 deletion enhanced the formation of early tumor lesions in mice in response to inflammation and in response to mutations in the KRAS and p53 genes. KRAS belongs to a class of genes known as oncogenes and when mutated have the potential to cause normal cells to become cancerous. The p53 gene stops the formation of tumors.

“While mutations in the KRAS oncogene are the main driver for the disease, how KRAS drives healthy cells to become cancer cells is not fully understood,” he said. “Also, new therapies are very much in need to target the oncogenesis induced by KRAS.”

The study also identified the basis of how pancreatic cancer cells reroute the metabolic dependencies under conditions of nutrient deprivation in the tumors.

Dr. Singh said studies need to be conducted in human patients to evaluate the effectiveness of SIRT5 against pancreatic cancer.

UNMC collaborators included Fang Yu, PhD, Audrey Lazenby, MD, and Kamiya Mehla, PhD.

Gifts of any amount help support pancreatic cancer research and may be made online to the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence Fund.

For more information about supporting cancer research, please contact cancer support specialists Ashley Christensen or Tom Thompson at 402-502-0300 or 800-432-3216.

Nurturing the Environment and Our Health

March 23, 2021 by Robb Crouch

by Tom O’Connor

With a massive flood in 2019 and a serious drought in 2020, Nebraska knows only too well the water extremes that can occur and the havoc they can produce.

For Jesse Bell, Ph.D., it makes Nebraska the perfect place for him to conduct his work as director of the newly established Water, Climate and Health Program based in the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health.

The program brings together experts from the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute (DWFI) at the University of Nebraska. It was created in 2020, thanks to a $5 million gift commitment made by UNMC alumna Anne Hubbard, M.D., through her family’s foundation, the Claire M. Hubbard Foundation.

Bell grew up in the tiny community of Bloomfield in northeast Nebraska.

He loved to fish and hunt and be out in nature.

When UNMC recruited him for an associate professor role in 2018, one of his colleagues said, “You could go to a lot of places. Why Nebraska?”

The answer was easy, said Bell, who was lured back to the Cornhusker state from Atlanta, where he created the first joint research position between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I loved growing up in Nebraska,” he said. “I knew the state, and I felt there was tremendous potential for future work — a better chance that we could move the meter a little more to produce improved health outcomes.”

When it comes to flooding, Bell said most people think of coastal states as having the biggest problem. Amazingly, with its large number of rivers and waterways, Nebraska ranks as the sixth most flood-prone state in the country.

“The 2019 flood was devastating to Nebraska,” Bell said. “It resulted in three deaths, and the $10.8 billion economic loss made it the costliest inland flooding event in U.S. history.

“We saw the full spectrum of flooding — the damage caused by rushing water, contaminants, bacteria and ag chemicals in the water, debris you can’t see, animals trying to escape. Once the waters receded, we saw the problems afterwards, such as mold in houses and mental health issues due to lost crops and livestock.”

With 92% of Nebraska’s land dedicated to agriculture, it’s no surprise that high nitrate concentrations can be found in groundwater across the state. Nitrates, which have been linked to potentially serious health issues in babies, originate primarily from fertilizers, septic systems and manure storage or spreading operations.

In addition, other elements found in Nebraska’s water can impact health. These include arsenic, lead, uranium, agricultural chemicals and herbicides such as atrazine.

Bell said 80% of Nebraska’s water comes from community public water systems, while the remaining 20% comes from private domestic wells.

Climate change is another area of concern in Nebraska, Bell said.

“Over the past 50 years, Nebraska’s temperatures and precipitation have increased,” he said. “Scientists expect this trend to continue in the future, which will translate to winters being wetter and summers being drier.”

By partnering with DWFI, the Water, Climate and Health Program will be able to enhance its effectiveness, he said.

Peter G. McCornick, Ph.D., executive director of DWFI, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, agrees.

“This is a strategically important alliance for our institute and the UNMC College of Public Health,” McCornick said. “It will enable us to better research the complex issues impacting water quality and develop solutions for improved public and environmental health. We’re very pleased to welcome Dr. Bell to the DWFI leadership team.”

The Water, Climate and Health program will work in three main capacities:

Bringing diverse university experts together to solve complex issues
Finding technical and policy solutions to improve the environment for better human health
Providing experiences for students studying these issues

Research topics the program could address include the following:

Links between the state’s water quality and pediatric cancer and birth defects
Health outcomes related to Nebraska’s flooding
The impact of technology, such as precision application of nitrogen fertilizer on soil and water quality
Mapping at-risk populations and environmental exposures in the state

“The hope is to build an interdisciplinary program across the university that will thrive for decades to come,” Bell said. “We have plenty of work to do. We will focus on Nebraska first, then the region, and then everything outside the region. I’m excited about this. I think there will be a lot of good that will come out of this.”

Looking out for Mother Nature

Hubbard has had a love affair with nature since she was in her mid-20s.

When she was looking to make a significant investment in the University of Nebraska, it was very obvious to her that the best use of the money would be to address Nebraska’s most pressing public health issues associated with water and climate.

“Nature is so important. It calms you down … relieves mental stress. I love getting out and moving around,” said Hubbard, a 1977 graduate of the UNMC College of Medicine and member of the University of Nebraska Foundation Board of Directors. “I know there is a God when I’m outside.

“We need a healthy environment. Life is circular. All of us are connected. If we have unhealthy water or soil, it affects everyone — humans, plants and animals. We have to look out for Mother Nature, because she’s trying to look out for us.”

In addition to establishing the Water, Climate and Health program, her gift commitment created the Claire M. Hubbard Professorship of Water, Climate and Health that Bell will hold, pending approval by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents.

A pediatric radiologist, Hubbard worked in children’s hospitals in Kansas City and Philadelphia for 21 years before joining UNMC and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in 2005. She retired in 2015.

Her gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation helps meet a critical need in public health.

“The idea behind public health is to prevent disease instead of just treat it,” Hubbard said. “It is so obvious to me how much impact environment has on human health.

“Water is life. The goal is for everyone to have safe, clean water available. It’s exciting to see the University of Nebraska come together to try to make this happen.”

Visit nufoundation.org/university-receives-5 to learn more about Hubbard’s reasons for supporting the study of water, climate and health.

Erasing the Stigma: Treating Addiction as a Disease is Key to Beating Substance Use Disorders

March 23, 2021 by Robb Crouch

by Ed Rider

He thought he would never practice medicine again.

The stigma associated with seven years of alcohol and opioids misuse — being labeled an addict — affected his medical license and his practice. With no job and few prospects, he returned to school in hopes of pursuing a career as an alcohol and drug therapist.

Fate had another plan.

“My journey to recovery gave me empathy for patients, because when they talk about how painful withdrawal is, I get it,” Zoucha said. “These are sick people who need help to get well, not bad people we need to make good.”

His path also led him to better understand how the stigma of addiction hinders people from getting the help they desperately need.

Zoucha, now assistant professor of psychiatry and director of the addiction medicine division at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Psychiatry, applauds the psychosocial interventions and therapies that have helped many people with use disorders. However, he believes education on the neurobiological disease behind addiction is key to more successful recoveries.

“Substance use disorder is a disease that needs to be treated medically, like we treat patients with diabetes,” he said. “The more we can talk about addiction as something that can be treated at your doctor’s office with the aid of expertly trained therapists, the less stigma there will be surrounding it.”

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that more than 35% of drug overdose deaths in Nebraska involved opioids. Alcohol, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, kills more than 300 Nebraskans each year. More than 37% of vehicle fatalities were due to alcohol impairment.

The same survey estimates that up to 7,000 people in Nebraska are living with a substance use disorder. Only about 10% will get the medical help they need.

With just eight physicians who are board certified in addiction medicine in the state (all located in the Omaha metropolitan area) and 178 physicians who obtained the waiver to prescribe buprenorphine (a narcotic prescribed for addiction to pain relievers), the need for more providers is urgent.

UNMC, Nebraska Medicine and the state have joined forces in a public-private partnership to develop training programs that will educate more physicians to treat patients with addictions. Development of two addiction fellowship programs as well as Pain and Substance Use Disorder Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) were kick-started through private support and assisted by a subaward of the State Opioid Response grant from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

Howard Liu, M.D., MBA, chair of the UNMC Department of Psychiatry, recruited Zoucha from his position overseeing the juvenile chemical dependency unit at the Hastings Regional Center to initiate the Addiction Medicine Fellowship program (accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) and the executive fellowship program. It is the first fellowship program of its kind in the state.

“Few physicians in Nebraska know how to treat patients with addiction,” Liu said. “Our fellowship programs allow doctors to become experts in caring for patients with a substance use disorder. By lowering the stigma, medical professionals are more likely to see addiction as something they can treat.”

Addiction medicine fellowships are one-year multispecialty training programs for anyone who has completed a residency in the United States. Training provides a deep dive into providing care for people with unhealthy substance use, substance use disorders and other addictive disorders. The fellowship provides experience in the prevention, clinical evaluation, treatment and long-term monitoring of substance-related disorders.

Demand has been high for UNMC’s 30-day addiction medicine executive fellowship program for physicians, physician assistants and advanced practice nurses. Through a combination of clinical inpatient and outpatient treatment experiences, practicing providers learn how to evaluate and manage patients with substance use disorders.

In-person and web-based training helps executive fellows gain core skills for addiction treatment.

The program has graduated 35 fellows since its inception two years ago.

Growing the number of medical professionals who can treat patients with a substance use disorder is assisted by fellows applying these new skills to their practices and educating their partners. Giving providers the skills, knowledge and confidence to be the experts in their communities allows them to teach those skills to others.

ECHO uses videoconferencing to connect a variety of addiction specialists with providers across the state to discuss cases related to substance use disorders. Online sessions consist of a brief educational presentation followed by a clinical case discussion from a provider. Recommendations for treatment are also discussed.

“This amazing opportunity wouldn’t have happened had I not gone through my recovery journey,” Zoucha said. “Anyone can get substance use disorder, regardless of your status in society … it’s a medical disease.

“It also shows that people can get well.”

Two Weeks and Five Days

June 29, 2020 by Derek Dillon

UNO students team with UNMC, Apple Inc. to develop COVID-19 app

It starts with an email notification.

An interesting opportunity. Care to hop on a conference call to discuss?

The three University of Nebraska at Omaha students are intrigued.

On the phone, the pitch goes like this:

Would you like to build a groundbreaking mobile application with considerable value as a public health tool? It’ll involve collaborating with two teams.

The first is the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security, which is rapidly working to quell an unprecedented global health crisis and is also home to the nation’s only federal quarantine unit. The other is Apple Inc.

With the COVID-19 pandemic having recently arrived in Nebraska, spring break has come early.

No need to juggle coursework.

The students quickly agree.

Work begins immediately. Prototyping and wireframing and coding. Analysis and dialogue and refinement. Daily meetings stretch into the pre-dawn hours as each team navigates hunger — the UNMC team subsisted on takeout curry — exhaustion and multiple time zones.

As news segments turn some of their peers infamous during imprudent trips to warmer regions, Keegan Brown, Grayson Stanton and Carly Cameron spend their spring break tucked away in a design studio, maintaining 6 feet of separation and working in conjunction with experts in the fields of medicine and technology.

Less than three weeks later, 1-Check COVID was available in the Apple App Store and was downloaded more than 10,000 times in the first 10 days. The app is now also available on Google Play for Android phone users.

1-Check COVID is a risk-assessment tool that asks the user a series of questions ranging from biographical to geographical before inquiring about symptoms. All are computed in an effort to assess the likelihood of someone having contracted COVID-19. Once the questions are completed, users learn their risk levels: low, urgent or emergent. From there, they are guided toward subsequent steps, whether to continue to monitor their symptoms or contact the public health department. If users agree, they can share their risk profiles with health care professionals, employers and family members, among others.

“This will hopefully be lifesaving,” UNO and UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., said in a news release, which names the three Scott Scholars, who are all Nebraska natives, computer science majors and underclassmen. Cameron, the oldest of the trio, was 2 years old when the SARS outbreak occurred. She doesn’t remember it.

In a time of crisis, both UNMC and Apple have bet on youth. And youth has delivered.

“What these students did is nothing short of extraordinary,” said Harnoor Singh, director of student development for the Walter Scott, Jr. Scholarship Program (Scott Scholars), which was launched in 1997, thanks to the generous support of the Suzanne & Walter Scott Foundation. The program challenges high-achieving engineering and information science and technology students to develop their technical, creative and leadership skills.

As a Ph.D. candidate at UNMC, Thang Nguyen is researching and developing decision-support tools. An innovator at heart, Nguyen had built one such tool focused on strep throat analysis “as a launching-off point,” he said.

Then came a pandemic. And an opportunity.

With an understanding of how to parse the literature, decode and translate information into a language that coders can comprehend, Nguyen pivoted to the issue at hand, using the same logic that was already built.

“A lot of what we do is identify problems as they come up and try to just solve in a rapid manner,” said Michael Wadman, M.D., chair of the UNMC Department of Emergency Medicine, “so I think that’s kind of our mindset when we approach any problem.”

A relationship between Scott Scholars and Apple Inc. formed after UNO students took part in a summerlong workshop called AppJam, which included a trip to the tech giant’s California campus. Gold reached out to Singh to see if a partnership could be struck between the three teams.

After the Scott Scholars, UNMC and Apple began working together, Nguyen said the students’ focus and attention to detail stuck out.

“When you cross from the clinical side to the technical, there’s a lot of language that gets lost,” he said. “There was none of that with this team. Those are special students in a very high-functioning program. I don’t know if you see that in too many places.”

Apple representatives helped the teams troubleshoot bugs and fast-track the app for development.

“Sometimes it takes several weeks just to get approval through the App Store,” Singh said, noting that his team needed all of two weeks and five days to bring the project to the public.

“It has the potential to save so many lives,” he said, “to not only allow folks to assess their risk, but also decrease the pressure on emergency rooms and urgent care clinics.

“Sometimes the universe brings people together. Personally, I couldn’t be more proud of our students. I don’t know how many times I heard Apple executives say, ‘This has never been done before.’

“A public health crisis like this has the ability to leverage human talent to create radically innovative solutions. We took a group of high achievers and placed them in a learning environment that emphasizes human-centered design and were very intentional with teaching them how to navigate ambiguity and how to become comfortable with failure. These are all elements that they’ve learned in the Scott Scholars program.”

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